K.V.Thomas Expresses Concern Over Low Foodgrains Offtake by the States Pawar Argues for Strengthening of Coarse Grains and Pulses Procurement Food Ministers Meet to Review PDS

New Delhi: October 30,2012

Ensuring food security
to the people of the country has been one of the most important areas of
focus for the Government. In order to be in a state of readiness to
deliver provisions of proposed National Food Security Bill there is
urgent need to strengthen Public Distribution System. This was stated by
Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public
Distribution at the Conference of Food Ministers of States on here
today.

He said that the country has witnessed record production of foodgrains
in recent years. As a result, our granaries are full, still cases of
shortage in availability of foodgrains are reported time to time which
shows some shortfall in our distribution system. Urging the Food
Ministers to regularly review the off take at their level, Prof. Thomas
said that during the current year, record allocations of 253.96 lakh
tonnes have been made upto September, 2012 but offtake against the
allocations is a matter of concern. Infact it not only leads to denial
of subsidized foodgrains to the targeted beneficiaries, it also
accentuates the storage problem and adversely affects the subsequent
procurements of foodgrains, he added.

Stressing upon the need for creation of adequate storage facilities at
all levels for safe storage of foodgrains, Prof. Thomas said that
rotting of foodgrains, though sporadic, needs to be avoided at all
costs. He said that Food Ministry is implementing Private Entrepreneurs
Guarantee (PEG) Scheme. Under the Scheme, a capacity of 181.08 lakh
tonnes is to be created in 19 States through private entrepreneurs and
Central and State Warehousing Corporations. For each State, nodal
agencies have been designated and all assistance is required to be
provided by the State so that the capacities allotted can be completed
within a reasonable time frame. At present, about 31 lakh tonnes of
storage capacity has been completed under the scheme, and 20.55 lakh
tonnes has been taken over. A cumulative capacity of 73 lakh tonnes is
targeted to be completed by March, 2013. There is need to ensure that
planned capacities are created in stipulated time, without any
slippages, and put to use, he said. He also highlighted the need for
creation of intermediate storage facilities, especially for public
distribution purposes, under the Gramin Bhandaran Yojana of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Cooperation and Rural Infrastructure Development Fund
of NABARD.

Union Food Minister said that checking leakages and diversion of
foodgrains has been a challenge for the successful implementation of the
public distribution system, a number of steps have been taken to address
this problem. He said Use of technology can play a big role in this and
some States especially Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka have taken commendable steps in computerisation of various PDS
operations. The Central Government intend to deploy ICT tools in a big
way and a blueprint for end-to-end Computerization of TPDS Operations
has been prepared. As a first step in this direction, a scheme covering
Digitization of ration cards/beneficiaries and other databases,
Computerization of Supply-Chain Management, Setting up of Transparency
Portal and Grievance Redressal mechanism has been approved for
implementation on cost sharing basis with States. He solicited
cooperation of states in successful implementation of this scheme

Prof. Thomas said that the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs
and Public Distribution in one of their reports has recommended that the
matter regarding increase of commission of FPS owners should be taken up
with the State Governments for a reasonable increase as it would make
the FPS owner economically sustainable. He requested State Ministers to
review the prevailing margins to FPS owners in their States and revise
it suitably.

On the issue of direct transfer of food subsidy, Prof Thomas said that
to check the leakage and diversions, an alternate model of direct
transfer of food subsidy is being considered. Suggestions of States/UTs
on the alternate models have been called for on the issue. In the
meantime, a pilot scheme would be taken up shortly in some Union
Territories to assess the efficacy of the proposed alternative model,
before its implementation in other States. He also raised the issue of
wastage of food and menace of misleading advertisements with the states
and urged them to run campaign to create public awareness about these
issues.

Addressing the Food Ministers from the States, Shri Sharad Pawar, Union
Agriculture Minister said that the key to the success of the
modernization of TPDS lies in the re-engineering of all its components
and massive expansion of the infrastructure related to procurement,
storage and distribution. We need to fast track this process. He said
that Issue of food security has two aspects: overall availability of
food grains and its efficient distribution. On the availability front,
the country had very good production in the last few years. Although
initial kharif estimates point towards marginal drop in total food
grains this year, we are hopeful of achieving a total of 250 million
tonnes during 2012-13 with good prospects of Rabi crop, he added.

Shri Pawar said that program of “Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern
India” is showing commendable progress and paddy production in the
country is poised to steadily increase in the coming years. However,
together with the increase in paddy production in Eastern States, there
is need to strengthen the procurement machinery in these states, not
only to ensure remunerative prices for farmers but also to diversify the
geographical coverage as the traditional procurement states, namely
Punjab and Haryana which have reached a stage of saturation, he
stresses.

Emphasizing on the procurement of hitherto neglected coarse cereals,
Shri Pawar said that the success in wheat and rice production can be
largely attributed towards effective procurement arrangements for these.
“If we could develop similar arrangements for pulses, then I am
confident that in a short time we can become self-sufficient” he said.

Highlighting the importance of sound marketing infrastructure, Shri
Pawar said that in order to ensure continued agriculture growth,
marketing infrastructure needs to be revamped for the benefits of all
the farmers. State Governments backed by the Food Corporation of India
and the Department of Food and Public Distribution will have to
authorize additional agencies to take up procurement work, mobilize
financial and other resources for smooth conduct of operations, develop
additional storage facilities for safekeeping of grains, and make
appropriate arrangements for transporting the grains from the
procurement centers to the storage points. He said that states have to
play a larger role in providing adequate procurement arrangement.

Impressing upon the States to remain vigilant on the price being paid to
the farmers by the private trade, Agriculture Minister said that
tendency to suppress the price because of large arrivals due to bumper
harvest is quite common. Monitoring of prices especially in places where
organized markets do not exist or where markets have been completely
deregulated is an added responsibility which the State Marketing Boards
should discharge diligently. It is necessary to safeguard farmers’
interests by opening more procurement centres, he added.

The conference was also addressed by Deputy Chairman, Planning
Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia . He said to ensure that benefits
of PDS reach to targeted beneficiaries, option of direct transport of
subsidy should be experimented. He also emphasized the need of timely
export of food grains in view of increasing global prizes so that
advantage can be taken in the interest of farmers.

States Food Ministers meet was held today to review PDS and to consider
measures to further strengthen it. The meeting discussed ways to improve
off take of food grains by the states, increasing the viability of Fair
Price Shops (FPSs), doorstep delivery of food grains at FPS, improving
intermediate storage capacity and direct transfer of the food subsidy to
the consumers.

The meeting was chaired by the Minister for Food, Consumer Affairs and
Public Distribution System, Prof. K.V. Thomas. Besides Food Ministers
from the states, senior official from various central
ministries-Agriculture, Food, Finance and Planning Commission also
attended the meeting.

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